This invention relates to checking chemicals before mixing them to determine if upon their mixing they will initiate a run-away exothermic reaction. The invention is particularly useful when emptying waste inorganic and catalytic chemicals into a chemical waste depository containing many chemicals in a mix whose reactivity with the waste chemicals to be dumped is unknown. Under these latter conditions it has been very tedious and often dangerous to personnel to determine if the resulting mixture will not be the source of a run-away exothermic reaction; i.e., an explosion or fire. This is particularly true when there have been many (e.g., 30 to 40) chemicals added to the chemical waste depository prior to adding another chemical. The uncertainty is great as to whether the resulting new mixture will be safe or not. Particularly is this true when there are organic chemicals and/or chemical catalytic agents present.
Ordinarily to determine if such resulting mixtures were going to be safe, compatibility tests for the many individual chemicals or groups of chemicals present were run at a remote site in a chemical laboratory. Necessarily this was quite time consuming. Furthermore it exposed personnel to what may well be noxious or poisonous chemicals.
The present invention avoids these and other problems by providing a quick simple test at the dump site.
Also not to be overlooked is the use of this invention in connection with testing non-waste chemicals which are desired to be mixed and/or reacted together. This invention can provide quick checks upon such chemicals to determine if their resulting mixture is a safe and controllable mixture or reaction mixture.